AN: Okay, a couple of things about this chapter. There's A LOT of talking back and forth in this chapter and much action. You could say it's sort of to help build up to the plot. Also, I KNOW that in the show, Miss Chatham was married at one point. But I had her be an old maid in this fic for a few reasons. Reason One: the show doesn't tell us much about her husband anyway. He'd appearntly dead and is only meantioned like maybe once or twice. And I don't remember if it even said his name at all. Also she goes by Miss Chatham which was appearntly her maiden name also because of that video Zane found from when she was like sixteen. Reason two: I felt kinda bad for William Burke because he liked Susan and as this a Peter/Susan story and not a Geeky boy from subway/Susan story he has no chance what-so-ever with her in this fic. So I thought it would be kinda nice to have a little bit of a Louise/William pairing going on here. (If anyone has any thoughts on this feel free to bring it up in your reviews) Sorry for the longish author note, on with the chapter!

Peter, Susan, Emma, Cleo, Rikki, Ash, Zane, William, Miss Chatham, and Max sat in Emma's room talking about Mako Island. None of them could come up with any solution to the problem now at hand.

"Couldn't we perhaps...I don't know...humor your father for a while and them somehow trick him...into..." Peter was talking to Zane who was shaking his head no. "Oh, hang it all!"

"You don't know him, he's not going to listen to us." Zane said, looking over at Rikki wondering if she had a plan. After all, it was her who'd come up with something the last time Zane's father had tried something like this.

"If the environment protection people wont help us maybe we could appeal to the tourist committee." Emma suggested. "Mako Island's beauty does bring in a lot of tourists."

"Yes, but if Zane's father develops the place, it's likely to bring in more people, not less. So the tourist committee would be on his side." Max pointed out sadly, shaking his head in dismay. "I can't believe this is really happening. I still remembering the fishing there while the girls swam..." his old eyes filled with tears and Miss Chatham, who remembered those days very well herself, handed him a tissue.

"I wonder what will become of the mermaids if they still feel the pull of Mako during the full moon after Harrison Bennett messes with the place." William shuddered at the thought. From what he had heard from Susan about the full moon, the results could be disastrous.

"When is he going to start?" Susan wanted to know.

"He said in two weeks." Zane moaned, putting his hand to his forehead.

"At least it's after the full moon." Cleo said, trying to be cheerful.

Miss Chatham didn't look any less worried. "After this full moon, yes. It's the others afterwards that worry me."

"I don't know if this is the best time to bring it up, but from studying the full moon cycles, I have a feeling that there may be something special about this upcoming full moon." Max told them. "I was going to wait until Lewis came back tomorrow to bring up to all of you but I thought maybe I should let you all know now."

"But Max," Miss Chatham said. "The fifty year full moon has already passed. Isn't that the most powerful one?"

"Isn't that why Charlotte tried to lure us there?" Cleo felt angry just thinking about Charlotte Watsford, that traitor!

"That's what I thought but this upcoming one may be even stronger." Max said in a very serious tone that gave everyone in the room the shivers. "You could all be in danger."

"We wont let anything happen to them." Ash said firmly. "Even if we have to lock them up all night."

"I once tried to lock up Gracie, Louise, and Julia after they been moonstruck. I couldn't keep them safe." Max said gravely.

"Lewis has tried his best to keep us from getting moonstruck in the past." Cleo added, pulling her legs up onto the beanbag chair she was seated on.

"And failed." Rikki chimed in as if that was supposed to be helpful.

"Rikki!" Emma snapped, glaring at her friend.

"Well it's true." Rikki defended herself.

"What are we going to do?" Cleo asked feeling like she might throw up. A extra powerful full moon in only two days on top of the fact that Zane's father was trying to ruin Mako had that effect on her stomach.

"I don't know." Emma moaned.

"We'll protect you." Ash promised, slipping his arm around Emma's shoulder. "All of us."

"He's right." Peter told them. "before when there was only Lewis or Max trying to help three mermaids or just me trying to protect Su, it was nearly impossible, but if we all work together, we can keep them safe."

Susan felt extremely proud of him. "Well said, Peter."

"As for Mako, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it." Peter sighed.

"That's gonna be one heck of a bridge." Zane said grimly.

Ding-dong The door bell rang.

"Who could that be?" Ash wondered aloud.

"Elliot?" Zane suggested.

"Why would Elliot ring the door bell at his own house?" Rikki pointed out.

"I'll go see who it is." Emma opened the door, walked out of the room, and started for the staircase.

Once she was down stairs, she opened the door. It was Julia. She looked a little tired and worn out. She was dressed in old-lady scrubs and jogging shoes. As there wasn't a car in sight, she had probably walked all the way there from where ever she was staying.

"Hello, Emma." She said trying to smile though she wasn't terribly expressive by nature. She was a lot like Rikki in that sense (And in quite a few others too).

"Hi." Emma said politely hoping she didn't sound too awkward. "Come in, would you like something to drink?" She walked over to the cabinet where the glasses were kept.

"Yes, thank you very much." Julia said gratefully. "I hope you don't mind my coming on such short notice, I got you're address out of the phone book, it was listed under your number."

"No, I don't mind." Emma told her kindly.

"Is it only you, here?" Julia asked. "I was hoping to speak with Peter and Susan again."

"Oh, they're right upstairs." Emma went to the staircase. "Peter, Susan, Julia's here."

Susan, Peter, and Miss Chatham came downstairs.

"Louise!" Gasped Julia, putting her hand to her heart. "It's been years!"

Louise ran to her friend and hugged her tightly. They'd had fights in the past but it was all over now. "Oh Julia, I thought you had died after Rikki came across your locket."

"But you knew I gave it to Edmund." Julia reminded her teary-eyed friend.

"I'd forgotten." Louise admitted, letting her old friend go at last.

"That's alright." Julia's smile was genuine now.

"Hi, Julia." Rikki said as she strolled down the stairs and over to the couch where Julia and Louise were sitting.

Max came down and smiled at Julia.

"Long time no see." She said in a friendly tone.

"Good to see you too." Max told her. "I'm glad you're still alive."

"I'm rather pleased by that myself." Julia said rather dryly but her tone remained friendly.

"I guess the only one of us who's really gone is Gracie." Louise sighed. "Poor dear."

"My Gracie." Max whispered to himself.

"Max," Peter asked looking as though he was thing hard about something. "What did your Gracie look like?"

"Beautiful." Max said softly. "Sort of like Susan but with a very different character in the face. Thinner cheeks and lips."

"Long black hair?" Peter asked him.

"Yes." Max told him.

"Hmm." Peter mumbled, that deep-thinking look still on his face.

"Why do you ask?" Max wanted to know.

"No reason." Peter shrugged. "I just thought...well, never mind."

"She's in the picture inside the locket I gave to Emma." Miss Chatham reminded them.

Emma opened the locket and showed it to Peter.

"She seems familiar." Peter told them. "I think I knew her from somewhere."

"Maybe in the photographs I showed you?" Julia suggested.

"Maybe, but I think I've seen her in person before too." Peter said trying to remember. "But not up close, from a distance."

"Strange." Julia said, taking the glass of Juice that Emma was holding out for her.

Ever since he'd come back, saved Susan, and gotten engaged, Peter had been living with Max. Susan was still living in that run down dump she'd rented but it wasn't as likely to collapse on her as it used to because Zane had paid to have it fixed up a little. And to get a new heater that actually turned on. Every night at exactly ten o' clock, Peter called her to say goodnight.

Her cell phone's ring-tone was actually a ring. She wondered if she was the only person who still thought ringing was a sufficient alert and that trendy new songs-like the musical doorbells that some of the richer neighbors had brought when she was growing up-did more to annoy you than let you know someone wanted to talk.

"Hi." Susan said into the phone as she answered it.

"Hi." Peter's voice came in through the other end.

"Calling to say goodnight?" Susan asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Do I ever not?" Peter asked gently.

"Hey, I was wondering something." Susan told him.

"What's on your mind?"

"When you said you thought you knew Gracie from somewhere, where did you mean?"

Peter looked over his shoulder to make sure Max wasn't listening. "I think she's in Aslan's country. Remember I told you that in that country your eyes can see things from far, far away? Well I think I saw-I'm not sure though-but I think...I think it may have been her."

"But in order for that to be true, she'd have had to be taken away shortly before her death by Aslan, just like you, Lu, and Ed were." Susan said in a tone of wonder.

"I don't know if it was really her, that's why I didn't tell Max." Peter explained. "I didn't want to get his hopes up. It's bad enough seeing Julia an old woman like that, missing Edmund as much as she does...it's horrible."

"I know what you mean." Susan agreed. "I hate seeing William old and stiff. I still see him in my mind as the boy from the subway station who called me 'Phyllis'. Seeing him like that is...there's no words for it really."

"And it's so odd, being young in this world when we were clearly meant to either be old or not be here at all." Peter said rather sadly. "I do hope we make it to Aslan's country soon. You'll love it. It's even more wonderful than Narnia was."

"I will miss our friends here though." Susan sighed, thinking of the three mermaids she shared a close friendship with, their boyfriends who were so kind to her, William, Max and Louise-and now, Julia. She loved them all like family but she yearned to see her real family Edmund, Lucy, and her parents again. She wondered which world it was she really belonged in.

"I'll miss them too." Peter said. "And I do wonder what's going to become of everyone now, what with Mako Island in danger and all that..."

"I wish Aslan could come roaring in and save us all just like in Narnia." Susan confessed. "I wish it all the time."

"So I do." Peter whispered. "But that isn't his way in our world I guess."

"No, I guess not." Susan agreed.

"Well, goodnight Su." Peter said tenderly as he prepared to end the call. "See you tomorrow."

"See you then." Susan responded. "Goodnight."

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"Bye." He hung up.

"Bye." She hung up and pulled a wool blanket over her shoulders feeling a little chilly all of a sudden.

Meanwhile, out watching the rough nighttime waves of the sea hit the rocky part of the coastline, stood Miss Chatham. She was all alone, of course she was used to it but every once in a while she longed for what it seemed all of her friends had or had had at least once in their lives. Love. Romantic love. She had never felt it. Only seen it.

First in Gracie's love for Max. Then in Julia's infatuation with Carl before she found Edmund. She saw it in Cleo and Lewis now. It was clearly starting between Emma and Ash, if they weren't already in love, that's where they were headed. It was even blooming in surprising places, such as that between Zane and Rikki. Zane, when Miss Chatham had first met him was a spoiled jerk who let a girl follow him about whenever it suited him, then dumped her when he got sick of her company. And yet, whether it was because he feared his dad's anger a little less now that he was older, or if it was Rikki herself and her wild ways that had changed him, he had turned out alright and was in a good relationship for the first time in his life.

As for Miss Chatham, she wondered deep down what it would be like to have someone care for her. Of course, she was too old now. Any chance of finding someone had long passed for her. No man would look at her now. She was old. Not to mention a bit senile.

"Louise?" An old voice that sounded almost like Max's but with a British accent called.

She turned around to see Peter's cousin, William Burke, standing there on the rocks only a little distance from her look-out place, waving to her.

"Hello, William." She said called back. "What are you doing out here?"

William walked over to her so he didn't have to shout at the top of his lungs anymore. They were old and hoarse and couldn't take that kind of strain these days.

"Oh, I just like to come out here sometimes on nights when it's not too dark-I do hate the dark-to watch the waves." William explained. "Back when I first got that job at Dr. Denman's lab coming out here on bright nights was the only time I was ever happy."

"It is beautiful." Louise said softly, gazing out at the sea, remembering her younger mermaids years. Part of her wished she hadn't given it up. When she watched Susan, Cleo, Emma, and Rikki disappear in the waves off to the moon pool sometimes from her quiet unnoticed place by the pier, she missed being a mermaid. Of course getting it back now wouldn't do any good even if it was possible. It wasn't the same without Julia and Gracie.

"I actually wish it was dark tonight." Said William in a gloomy voice. "Although I'd have to miss this, the full moon wouldn't be coming so soon and what Max said...well, you heard it, what do you think?"

"I don't know what to think anymore, William." Sighed Miss Chatham. "I just don't. I've been the voice of reason since I was fourteen and now I think I'm getting to old even for that."

"You aren't that old." William reminded her. "You're at least a few years younger than I am. And I'm not old at all."

"Aren't you?" Louise asked with a twinkle of amusement in her eyes.

"I haven't felt old since I helped break Phyllis out of that lab." He said looking quite pleased. "I thought if I could have a hand it doing that, I couldn't be that old and useless after all."

Louise smiled at him. "Old is more than just a frame of mind."

"Yeah," William agreed, smiling back at her. "That's the only part I don't like."

"By the way..." Louise asked looking a little confused. "Who's Phyllis?"

AN: Please review. It would please me greatly.